I left that museum days, weeks, minutes, hours, seconds ago. I can't tell anymore. Time has blended, mixed in my mind. Then is now, now is gone, and the future is long, long ago. The statues still bug me, twisting from golden perfection into tarnished figurines rendered straight from nightmares. The faces which once held me in their perfection are now arrogant, possessive. They all want something from me. Holding out arms of metal, dripping rust from their elbows like the ichor that coated the demons words. I ran from there years, days, seconds, minutes, ago. I lost myself in paths of darkness, small monstrosities beckoning me to their shops. I don't dare to look and cover my ears as I run by them. The implements of torture and inhuman slavery hang from grotesque metal hooks, no doubt covered in dried blood, and the words they speak are honey-coated, sugary sweet, just the way to ensnare the unwary. Yet I am aware. I have seen them and what they do and I make no mistakes, until I make a mistake.
Being only a man, my eye is drawn to an ebony statue dressed in flame. She is beautiful and sensual, ugly and disgusting. She is fuel for my manhood as my steps falter, my eyes fatally locked to her sexuality. I feel the slime around my feet slide up my ankles and to my knees. I know there is nowhere to go now, even if I wanted to. My eyes burn, must be the sulfur in this personal hell I am in. The smoldering statues around me close in, demanding things of me in a tongue I cannot make out. The ebony idol looks to me and smiles, pointing a clawed hand towards me. I feel my body shaking, cold sweat covering me, blanketing me as the ocean would if I was drowning. I briefly remember drowning recently and think that if I drowned, but why would I have drown? If I drown, when did it happen? I brush off the half-thought with a mental shrug and see why the onyx statue with red red eyes was pointing at me. Her familiar, as dark as midnight in the middle of a forest flows from behind me, eyes hungry for some unspeakable act. I know I'm afraid, but the fog surrounding me now hides it from those that would harm me. The shadow draws close, asking something in whisper-hushed tones. I feel my mouth open, close, open, close. No words come forth but I see the shadow retreat, the ground release its hold, and the statues back away. The fog begins to lift as I raise myself from the muck, the last tatters of the fog wisping away like forlorn ghosts.
I stand up and see the people around me looking at me like I'm crazy. I start walking down the hallway, wondering what is going on. A black woman and a large man are standing together, arms clasped around each other in a loving embrace. I smile slightly at them and am dumbfounded on why they recoil from a simple smile. Stupid people, all of them. I walk by the shops and stop at one, looking at sunglasses, watching the world fall into a light green haze. I always liked the color green, so I buy them from the clerk and walk away. Stepping outside, feeling the wind whip around me, embracing me as a lover would, I snap my fingers and open my bottle, rolling the two objects around and around. Feeling them race down my throat, I swallow deeply and feel tension melting out of my body. I silently ask myself why fog would be gushing out of the roads and lawns at this time of day, but I cant remember why I would care. I put on my glasses and bathe the world in emerald, the fog illuminating in the lenses.
It was like waking from a dream! One moment in hell, the next in heaven, where would I end up next?! I walked down the crystalline path, watching boxes made of emeralds, shimmering in the yellow-green sun, flow by me on rivers of algae. I laugh a great laugh and don't stop, feeling my body expand and contract which each cascade of laughter spewing out of my face. I approach an emerald guardian and hear myself ask him which way to Oz while mirth is dancing on my shoulder, only to have him look at me quizzically and say something in green-speak. I hear my body laugh again and tell him that I don't speak green, but thank him for being so kind. One of the green boxes moves close to me and mirth instructs me to get in, pointing imperiously from my shoulder while he spins in a joyous little jig. I feel my hand slide into the color, becoming one with it as it infuses my entire body. I wondered if I would be able to speak something, but again cant remember why I would want to speak with green people, no matter how jolly.
Another guardian is sitting in the cube as I feel it move beneath my feet and above my head. Time slows and speeds, speeds and slows, until we reach the Emerald City, or I believe that's what he said, I cant understand green-speak, I hear my lips say to it. The green-diamond laughs a crystal laugh and steps out from the oval, and pulls me gently away from that grassy tomb. This place, I cant remember what I called it, but that doesn't matter, feels right to me. It feels like this is where I should be. Entering it's massive gem-like portal, I feel the guardian wrap some shirt around me, but I hear my eyes tell him the sleeves are a bit too long. My arms will grow, expand, become so long I can touch that light bulb above me. The guardian gently leads me to another room and shuts a door, the sound echoing in my new semi-precious home. The fog fills this room, but it reminds me of a smoke bomb and I always liked smoke bombs as a child. I feel my head beating a rhythmic tune on the down-filled wall, filling me with the tinkling sound of falling jewels. The fog envelopes me as I close my eyes, thinking my travelling days are done, but why would they be done if I haven't gone anywhere?
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